


Abandoned in this Timeline

by TempestRising



Series: Snippets [3]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF), The Sims (Video Games)
Genre: Dan and Phil are Gods, Great Hiatus, Living Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 20:44:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17433224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TempestRising/pseuds/TempestRising
Summary: "It's the gods." Dab looked out the window. The fog was clearing up. "I bet the aliens will come back," Dab said. "But the gods have left."Or: What happens to the creation after the creators leave?





	Abandoned in this Timeline

**"We have decided to go on a break from the gaming channel. I mean - not a break. Hiatus? Like One Direction. No! They never came back..."**

**-Dil's Family Winterfest - Dan and Phil Play: Sims 4 #63**

**.***.**

Dab stared at the apartment that had materialized out of nowhere, customized for them. He didn't feel like going to work and didn't know how to do that if he wanted to, wasn't quite sure what day of the week it was, and if there was a shoot somewhere expecting new talent, and how, in fact, he'd gotten to his first gig, disappearing from the apartment and materializing, suddenly, in the place he was supposed to be. But today wasn't like that first day of work. He felt...aimless.

He reached out for Evan. Evan anchored him. In a sea of new people, experiences, places to be, Evan was a hand to hold in the crowd. He had not so much fallen in love with Evan as he had realized, one morning, that he always wanted Evan to be next to him, that Evan was the first person he thought of when he saw a funny video, or wanted to try a new recipe, or needed a spontaneous getaway. Evan was attractive, to be sure, and wicked smart, and when Dab thought back to those first fumbling teenage encounters he is constantly surprised - not by his own wanting - but by the fact that Evan could possibly want him in return.

The bed was empty. Not just empty but cold.

Dab sat up. Tried, seriously, to think about what day it was. Monday? Thursday? Would Evan be at work? At school? The gym? He squinted at the light outside the room. There were no clocks. It could be early morning. Or early afternoon.

Dab padded into the kitchen. He didn't want cereal, wasn't hungry at all, couldn't stand the thought of standing in a shower. He was cold. He sat, because his legs refused to support him, and called for help the only way he knew how: "Evan?"

He didn't even want to go back to bed. He felt sort of clammy, like he was in the grips of an illness, and experimentally touched his own forehead.

"Evan!"

And - Dab felt so stupid - the sound of water being turned off. Evan poking his head out of the bathroom. Dripping hair running rivulets down to the floor. Would Dab have to clean it? Had Dab ever cleaned anything before?

Evan stared at him, and then nodded. "Yeah. Okay. Give me a minute to dry."

"But -"

"Call Dalien. He called before but we thought - if you were still sleeping. Don't wake you."

"I feel -"

"I know. I hear you. Give me two seconds, babe."

The door clicked shut behind him and Dab put his forehead to his knees. He clung to the only words that made sense. Evan, stoic, quiet Evan, had called him 'babe.' And his phone was in the bedroom: the floor between here and there was a marathon.

He waited. Evan slipped out of the bathroom in a clingy t-shirt and sweatpants. "No work?" Dab asked.

"No reason."

"What day is it? What - it's so foggy outside. Did it rain? Did something happen? I feel -"

Evan grabbed his hand. They both stared out the windows together. The city usually spread under their feet, a quilt of patchwork dreams, but today there was something creeping in, a strange, fuggy mist that snaked between the buildings, smudging them out. When Dab tried to focus on any one thing it disappeared. He could only see the outlines of shapes from the corner of his eye, shadows darting on the walls. 

"Dalien called."

"I know. You said - but I just couldn't get my phone. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. I thought a shower would help. I feel like I'm being pressed into the ground. Like," Evan gestured at his midsection, "like someone is stacking heavy books in my ribcage. One book drops and I'm out of breath. And then another book. And another. And there's no room left, but the books keep dropping, and I can't breathe."

Dab tightened his hand on Evan's. The fist of implacable anxiety is clenched in his belly, but at least Evan is here, and whole, and trying to figure this out.

They watched the fog rise. It seemed to claw at the windows. Dab thinks there's other shapes in the fog. Fingers. Galaxies. Stars seem to blink into existence and die just before Dab can get a good look. Dab leaned forward. There's a face in the fog, a face more beautiful and terrible than any he'd ever seen, a face like -

A knock at the door. Dab slid off his chair. Evan looked out the peephole, and then threw the door open. "Dalien! How did you get here?"

Dalien had sprouted up recently, a lanky teenager where his adorable little brother had been, but Dab still crossed the room in three long strides and pulled Dalien close. "Are you okay?"

His brother like an unmoving pillar in his arms. "The aliens are gone."

Dab let him go. "What?"

Evan busied himself in the small kitchen, compelled by propriety to make something for their unexpected guest. 

Dalien collapsed at the tiny table. "Dad has been running experiments all day. Do you feel it? Dad feels it. Mom feels it. And Dad says it's because the aliens are gone."

"But -" Dab grasped, "you're here."

"I'm here," Dalien said patiently, "but don't you get it? That's why you feel so..."

"Heavy," Evan supplied.

"Sad," Dalien whispered. "That's why we all feel so sad. Because the aliens left. There's no one watching us. Watching out for us. We're alone. And it's making us sad."

"Has your Dad tried talking to them?" Evan asked. "Maybe we did something wrong?"

But Dab was shaking his head. "It's not the aliens."

"It makes sense though!"

"It's the gods." Dab looked out the window. The fog was clearing up. Maybe it had never been there in the first place. He thought, perhaps, that today was Tuesday, and maybe he should give that agent a call, book his own gig, write it down in the calendar. "I bet the aliens will come back," Dab said. "But the gods have left."

Dalien snorted. He was just a kid. He hadn't met his soulmate yet. He didn't know the pleasure of gods that smiled on you from birth, creating your other half just for you. Maybe he didn't feel the sting of abandonment the same way Dab did. "What does that even mean?" Dalien glanced up at Evan. Smiled. "That hot chocolate for me?"

And, as the days folded on, Dab began to really understand what it meant. Without gods, life continued. Evan went to work and learned how to save Sims' lives. Dab went to work and learned how to promote toothpaste. The fog lifted. They ate. They remembered the days of the week. They called their Moms for mother's day.

But the spontaneity was gone. There were no more adventures to the rain forest, no more skeleton maids, no more alien abductions (though Dad did confirm, eventually, that the aliens were still there, just seemingly uninterested in them). There were no more new apartments or restaurants appearing out of nowhere. Life went on, and it was a good life, an easy life, but it seemed muted, somehow. The magic sucked dry. 

Sometimes Evan would ask him if he wanted to go to church. There was one in their hometown. They could go to church and visit the families for an afternoon. But Dab would always refuse. The gods weren't in church. They couldn't be appealed to by prayers or candles. Either you were in their favor, or you were not. 

So Dab did not pray, but he did hope. Secretly, so as not to alarm Evan. He liked their quiet life. This was enough. 

But he hoped that the gods would return, with their wills and their whims, with their adventures and secrets. Without the gods the weather was mild and the work was easy. When the gods were around - yes, the kitchen caught fire, and Dad got abducted, and sometimes it rained. But the gods also brought dogs and homes and swimming pools.

And, once, when Dab was very little, the gods had brought him Evan. 

And Dab had never even thought to thank them.

**Author's Note:**

> As always for Amanda. I miss Dan and Phil so I decided to give those feelings to Dab.


End file.
